The present invention relates to a chair construction. In particular, it relates to the installment of a fabric envelope having a contoured top end, and an internal wire member having an arcuate shape substantially similar to the top end of the fabric envelope.
Outdoor furniture having an envelope of flexible material stretched over metal framework is quite popular. One example of such furniture is described in the Bottemiller U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,126.
Typically, this type of furniture consists of a fabric sheet held in tension between two longitudinal bars, or a variation thereof. The bars are held apart by a number of external braces. Construction of these chairs sometimes requires the aid of a special tool to space the bars apart, and provide tension to the fabric.
The present invention includes a method of constructing furniture having a flexible envelope in tension and supported by first and second spaced-apart parallel rails held apart by an internal resilient member and a plurality of external cross braces. The flexible envelope is preferably constructed of two sheets of fabric sewn together along the entire perimeter with an opening on the back side of one sheet located near the bottom. The two spaced-apart rails form the structure of the chair, and have slots on the top ends to receive a wire member. The wire member preferably provides an aesthetically pleasing contoured shape to the top of the back of the chair, and acts as an internal brace initially keeping the two rails spaced apart. The resilient wire member also provides tension to the flexible envelope in the top half of the chair during assembly.
The method includes attaching the wire member to the top of each rail. The bottom of the rails are then brought closer to one another. The top of the rails, along with the wire member, are then inserted within the flexible envelope. The top of the flexible envelope is pulled over the wire member and the top of the rails, and the bottom of the flexible envelope is pulled over the bottom of the rails.